Sunday, October 23, 2005
On the Road
I finally finished Jack Kerouac's On the Road, after some three weeks since I first started it. I liked it well enough, although reading the book wasn't quite the religious experience for me that it was for a lot of other people who've read the book (including rock stars such as Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison).The narrative was certainly exhilirating. In fact, while reading the book, all these crazy ideas about going on the road kept popping into my head. I should go on one of these crazy trips, like that time I went to Baguio on a whim, or when I went to Bicol alone to go to that workshop with only verbal directions on me. Come to think of it, I've never been to Mindanao. I'd like to see Mindanao. Cagayan de Oro? Or Davao? Hell, why not both. I'd RO-RO to Iloilo, spend a couple of nights getting drunk with my relatives, take a ferry to Cebu, hang out for a couple of days with Tito Junjun, then ferry to CDO. I could even make my way to Iligan, then Marawi, Gen-San, and then finally Davao. Then I'll take a ship back to Manila. January sounds good... hmm, resign kaya ako? Or better yet, AWOL?
But then, as exhilirating as the narrative was, I can't help but shake the feeling that I was just reading about a couple of jack-asses doing whatever they pleased. The constant gushing of Kerouac (as narrator Sal Paradise) over his man-crush on his crazy buddy Neal Cassady (the book's hero Dean Moriarty) didn't help either.
Comments:
10/24/2005 12:11 AM -- 
thomas says:
Funny coincidence, the three weeks you spent reading it, the same pace (three weeks) that Kerouac spent typing it:
http://lettersfromthomas.blogspot.com/
10/26/2005 12:54 PM -- 
says:
what i'd like to do is travel around the country, go from north to south, in just a month, like this girl i read about. and apparently, she did it with a budget of only $100. that's less than P6000! galing no? :)
